Hugh Grant has been the latest name attached to the Dungeons and Dragons movie. The actor became a household name thanks to his roles in romantic comedies but is now better known for over-the-top roles such as the villain in Paddington 2.
The project has a very interesting cast so far. Bridgerton star Rege-Jean Page, Resident Evil icon Michelle Rodriguez, Star Trek’s Chris Pine and Detective Pikachu’s Justice Smith. Fans have speculated that this may well be an ‘adventuring party’, the traditional story format for a game of Dungeons and Dragons. This means one character will be a some sort of rogue, another a wizard, someone will have healing powers and so on.
Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley have been attached to direct. Their credits include Game Night and Spider Man: Homecoming. The movie is expected to come out in May 2022. A persistent rumour is that the plot will revolve around a heist for a legendary artifact, the gruesome Eye of Vecna, a powerful relic that was once part of a god of death.
Paramount will be working with eOne, the company that handles this sort of thing for toy and game manufacturer Hasbro, the current owners of Dungeons and Dragons. Wizards of the Coast, the company responsible for D&D was recently elevated to the position of a division within Hasbro. The game’s popularity has lead to record profits and Wizards are now responsible for the companies digital products.
The feature has been in development for a very long time and they have been multiple attempts to bring the vast and complicated world of Dungeons and Dragons to the silver screen since the 80s. It’s creator, Gary Gygax, famously failed to get a movie made and the least said about 2000’s low budget fantasy movie of the same name the better.
The tabletop game has enjoyed a huge revival in recent years thanks to shows such as Critical Role, Questing Time and High Rollers, as well as the game’s Fifth Edition, which is a far more accessible and inclusive rules-set. One of the challenges any Dungeons and Dragons movie will face is exactly which story to tell. The game has been around since 1974 and has accrued a whole library’s worth of lore and stories. Add to this the fact that the game itself is all about making up your own adventures and it becomes quite clear why it’s taken so long to develop a script that can be truly described as Dungeons and Dragons.
Time will tell if this new movie will take the fantasy franchise into a bold new direction or if we will finally get to see other world’s from D&D vast catalogue of stories, including Ravenloft and Dragonlance
